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What is Sidekick and how can I use it with my theme?

Sidekick is Shopify's free, built-in AI assistant, included with every plan. It can answer questions, draft content, and inside the theme editor specifically, recommend design choices or write custom blocks for you. It's not a Troop feature, it's part of Shopify itself, but it works well alongside these themes.

Where to find it

  • In the theme editor: the icon in the top right of the toolbar, next to the device preview icon. Press ⌘. (Ctrl+. on Windows) to open it from anywhere in the editor.
  • Elsewhere in Shopify admin: the Sidekick icon in your admin, or go directly to admin.shopify.com/sidekick.

What it's actually good for on a Troop theme

Design decisions. Describe your brand or the look you want, and it'll suggest colors, fonts, spacing, or button styles, previewed before anything is applied. Useful as a starting point, or a second opinion when you're stuck between two options.

"Suggest a warm, earthy color palette for a candle store."

One-off blocks. On sections that support it, Add block → Generate turns a plain-language description into a working block (Liquid, HTML, CSS, and settings), previewed before you keep it. Good for something small a section doesn't already offer, without hiring a developer.

"Add a block with an icon, a short heading, and a line of text for a shipping promise."

Content drafting. Blog posts, newsletter blurbs, FAQ copy, back-in-stock emails, rewriting default theme text in your brand's voice, Sidekick can draft all of these from a short description. Treat the result as a first draft, not final copy.

"Write a short, warm newsletter blurb offering 10% off the first order."

What to keep in mind

  • It shows a preview and asks for confirmation before changing anything, you're always still in control.
  • Generated blocks can have errors or accessibility issues, review before publishing. Shopify support won't debug what it generates, that's on you or a developer.
  • Block generation isn't available on the Starter plan, and not every section supports it.

Info

Shopify's guides: Sidekick overview and generating theme blocks.

Every settings guide on this site also has its own "Ask Sidekick" section with a prompt tailored to that specific page, look for the icon next to the heading.